Student Films Step It Up

In my early days of acting, doing a student film was a crap shoot. You might get a call with directions to the location, you might not. Acting direction? Cracker, please. You were usually flying blind, hoping for the best, knowing that at least the film would get completed because they were students who needed to graduate.

Most of my recent post "An Open Letter to Student Filmmakers" is based on these experiences. I've never blamed students for their lack of professionalism - they're just inexperienced. And I've always compensated by lowering my expectations.

So imagine my surprise when the last three student films I did featured the most professional, capable student crews I've ever seen.

Most recently, I had a supporting lead role in a Chapman University student film called "Retreat."

Check out this detailed call sheet --

Badass. Chapman has a brand new, state of the art film school facility --

It is seriously souped up. AVID editing suites, motion capture studios - you name it, they're learning it. They even have a foley stage!

Day 1 started in makeup. She brought a ton of stuff to do up two women --

Then head into one of two soundstages they have on their campus. That's right, full soundstages.

You guys, they built their set. For reals. This is my mark --

Day 2 was on location in Ontario. They shot the film on an incredibly high-end HD camera. Better than the Red. Yeah.

Don't worry, my stripey socks were not in the shot --

Final day was in the middle of nowhere in Brea. It was a film about a meditation retreat, you see. And where better to meditate than the middle of nowhere --

Director on the left, lead actress on the right. Thanks for a great shoot, Chapman students!

Can't wait for you to see it - it's going to look great!